The Gundam Card Game is the latest game to come out of gaming giant, Bandai, and also an incredibly fun way to relive some of your favorite Gundam battles. With the first set, Newtype Rising, fully released worldwide, Gundam’s first round of store tournaments are already underway. Lucky for me, I was able to attend the event series on its very first opening weekend. And even better, I went undefeated in my very first Gundam Store Tournament!

Below, we’re going to be diving into everything you need to know about Gundam Card Game Store Tournaments. Not only will we be looking at the very deck I used to claim victory, but we’ll also be diving into the prizes you can get from particicipating in these events, as well as from winning them.

Get ready, because Gundam Card Game Store Tournaments are some seriously fun events with some incredible prizing.

Gundam Store Tournament participation prizing

Before getting into my first place, undefeated deck, let’s talk about participation prizing. While the exact renumeration will depend on where you go, typically stores will hand out additional prizing in addition to the stuff Bandai gives them to give to players. At my tournament, this meant getting a Gundam pack (not exactly easy to come by right now) just for entering. Although not standard for all Bandai events, my LGS also gave me a special promo pack including alternate art cards from the starter decks.

Of course, your own store will handle prizing their own way, but this is a great example of how local game stores will go above and beyond to offer additional incentives to players in order to build a bustling community of TCG enthusiasts.

Now, on to the standard Bandai stuff you definitely will get at your Gundam Store Tournament: a participation pack.

Gundam Store Tournament Participation Packs include one of the following cards

So here’s how the core Gundam Store Tournament prizing works. Apart from however else your store has it set up, you’ll be getting one participation pack that contains one of the above, alternate art cards in them. These cards can sometimes be valuable given their exclusive nature. After all, you can only get them from attending actual Bandai sponsored Gundam tournaments.

I have to say, Bandai really knocked it out of the park with these participation prizes. Compared to UNION ARENA (the other Bandai TCG I cover), the fact that each and every card you get in the participation pack is foil is very, very exciting. At UNION ARENA events, you get a pack of promos as well as an AP pack with the chance of the card being foil. Having a guaranteed foil in every pack makes it feel like it’s much more likely you’ll complete a playset of the foil participation cards if you play often enough.

I was lucky enough to pull one of the participation cards I wanted most: the foil Unforseen Incident card featuring one of my favorite Gundam characters, Lacus Clyne. Here’s a look at the actual card I pulled so you can see how these look outside of the digital images.

As gorgeous as this card looks, my only regret about it is that it isn’t an alt art version of the powerful “Overflowing Affection” Command card – a must-have in competitive Gundam decks right now. I’ll have to build a deck that runs this card just to include this copy of one of favorite alternate artworks so far.

My tournament winning deck was a creative twist on a popular meta deck

Now for the fun part: how I actually went about winning the tournament. Depending on your familiarity with the current Gundam Card Game meta, the above deck will either look familiar or not. Essentially, this deck has the bones of the popular White/Blue Unicorn Blocker deck, but with my own take on the strategy, as well as a few extra tech cards largely thrown in because I wanted to show off their alternate artwork designs.

The best place to learn about this deck is from my Blue/White Triple Ship deck guide. There I go into a lot more detail than I do here. But what I will say is that in addition to the power of this deck, my emphasis on the Triple Ship combo between the Astray and the Strike Rouge was a huge, huge competitive advantage. This is especially true given the field I was facing down.

Of the three matches, two were Blue/White mirror matches. And the cards that helped me dramatically edge out my opponents in the early game? You guessed it: the Astray and Strike Rouge.

By combining these two cards together, I was able to unlock a much more aggressive early game than Blue/White is typically capable of. Both of my opponents were running the popular Zowart Unit. And while that’s a solid card in a lot of ways, its inability to attack the base disables aggressive plays that are otherwise available to you.

It may not sound like much but in incredibly close matchups like these between two very similar and powerful decks, small differences like these can up to massive ones.

Changes to this deck I would make based on the outcome of matches

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For the most part, my Blue/White Triple Ship deck worked like a charm and I’m very happy with it. However, if I were to change anything from this strategy it would be to double down further on the Triple Ship strategy, including more of the Perfect Strike Gundam and less of the original Gundam the way I have him here. I’d probably drop two of the Blue four-cost Gundams for two more Perfect Strikes. I might also increase Cagalli from a one to a two-of.

Regardless, this deck was absolutely strong enough to win as is, and with a few more tweaks it will be even stronger!

Preparing for a Gundam Store Tournament is hard work

One final note before moving on to what I got for winning the tournament: being successful at a Gundam Store Tournament takes a ton of work. There might be some people who can find a list they like online, put a deck together, and show up and win a Gundam Card Game tournament with virtually no practice.

However, despite being a strong TCG player myself, it took me a ton of practice on my own and with friends to refine my deck, and master the basics of the game.

Even after many late nights and countless battles I still missed a few key nuances of gameplay I only learned in the heat of battle actually at the tournament.

I guess that’s one of the best things about TCGs: there’s always something new to learn.

What do you get for winning a Gundam Store Tournament?

Now for the really fun part: what do you get for winning a Gundam Store Tournament?

Again, the totality of your prizing will depend on the store you are playing at. Mine was quite generous, handing out two additional Gundam packs for winning first place, along with a Gundam deck box and two additional promo cards – essentially the prizing for attending the Booster Pack Launch Event if you attended one of those.

But the really exciting prize you get for winning is the Store Tournament Winner Pack. Inside these packs is one of eight of the same foil participation cards, only with an extra special Gundam stamp that proves you are the sole winner of the tournament.

I can’t tell you the excitement I felt opening my winner pack wondering which card would be mine. As it turns out, it was the Wing Gundam (Bird Mode). You can see the actual card I won from my event below.

With everything said and done, the Gundam Card Game Store Tournament 2025 Season 1 is a massive success. While your full experience will likely depend on what store you go to, no matter what the incredible Participation packs and Winner cards are a massive draw for players looking to show off their skills in the hottest new card game. I absolutely can’t wait for my next Gundam event, and what exclusive alt artwork I’ll win this time!

I Won My First Gundam Card Game Store Tournament